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First posted on Tuesday, 11 February 2014 at 17:36
A Zoroastrian reflection of heaven on earth, and the force which opposes this.
Asha,for Zarathustra, was ideal creation, the totality of the vision of ideal existence. It is a fundamental concept of Zoroastrianism. There is no adequate translation of Asha, although the following impart something of its essence. World-order, Truth, Right, righteousness and holiness. In short, it did not mean in our small-minded empirical way, the truth or falsity of a statement.
The Truth for Zarathustra was the relationship of all things in such a way that nothing occurs at the expense of something else. In such perfect harmony there is no friction in existence.
This ideal world of Zarathustra was to be idealised in the material world. Ahura Mazda, God, literally 'Wise Lord', the Supreme Being of the Zoroastrians, in his wisdom conceived of a perfect existence in purely ideal terms and this is what is called Asha, the Truth.
So Truth then means an ideal form of existence, where nothing is in conflict, or in abrasion, with anything else. It is also the notion of social justice. In an earthly reflection of the World-order, no-one prospers at the cost of somebody’s injury.
The ideal world was supposed to be actualised in matter, lived in Asha, to a state of total perfection.
However,and here comes the essential dualist doctrine of Zarathustra, within the material world there is also the possibility that Asha may not be actualised.
Indeed, Zarathustra says there are two forces. There is the spirit which promotes Asha and there is the spirit which opposes and frustratesAsha.
And this is the eternal dualism, the struggle between good and evil.
Christianity once recognised such a struggle, but now it is glossed over by pseudo-Christianity, Judaeo-Christianity.
Jesus,the incarnation of Truth, confronted the evil epitomised by Pharisaic self-righteousness and hypocrisy, and the Roman moral relativism of Pontius Pilate. Said Jesus, ‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword’ (Matthew 10:34)
(Pictured: two images of good versus evil, one Zoroastrian, the other Christian.)
John Dunn.
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